Draining Earth: How Water Mining is Drowning Solutions to an Imminent Global Water Crisis

CURATED BY KRISTIN KOWNACKY

As India’s water reservoirs are pumped dry by industries and farmers, factories have taken to buying underground water from local farmers. While it’s good business for the farmers, it will only last as long as the water does. And the water is running out. Water mining is not just India, it is a growing trade all over the world. But for how long?

FROM National Geographic

Suresh Ponnusami sat back on his porch by the road south of the Indian textile town of Tirupur. He was not rich, but for the owner of a two-acre farm in the backwoods of a developing country he was doing rather well. He had a TV, a car, and a maid to bring him drinks and ensure his traditional white Indian robes were freshly laundered every morning.

The source of his wealth, he said, was a large water reservoir beside his house. And as we chatted, a tanker drew up on the road. The driver dropped a large pipe from his vehicle into the reservoir and began sucking up the contents.

Ponnusami explained: “I no longer grow crops, I farm water. The tankers come about ten times a day. I don’t have to do anything except keep my reservoir full.” To do that, he had drilled boreholes deep into the rocks beneath his fields, and inserted pumps that brought water to the surface 24 hours a day. He sold every tanker load for about four dollars. “It’s a good living, and it’s risk-free,” he said. “While the water lasts.””…Continue Reading on National Geographic

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Kristin Kownacky is a junior at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, where she is currently working towards a BA in journalism and international studies. It is her dream to travel the world, discovering hidden treasures and writing about each experience. Read her articles on her personal blog, Depart We Now.